Friday, 10 October 2025

Friday of the 18th week after Pentecost

173 days after Pascha · Tone 8 · Liturgy · Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyrs Eulampius and Eulampia

Saints Eulampius and Eulampia were brother and sister who lived at the beginning of the fourth century in the city of Nicomedia. They came of a noble Christian family at a time when the imperial edicts of Maximian had again unleashed the persecution of the Church, and many of the faithful were hiding in caves and in the surrounding hills.

Eulampius, a young man of fervent zeal, came one day upon the imperial decree posted in the city which sentenced all Christians to execution. Reading it openly, he laughed at the folly of those who waged war against God and was at once seized and brought before the governor. Refusing to deny Christ, he was scourged and torn with iron hooks. His sister Eulampia, hearing what had befallen him, ran to the place of torture, threw her arms about her brother's neck, and confessed Christ also.

The torments inflicted upon them were many. They were placed upon a red-hot bed, cast into a cauldron of boiling oil, and stretched upon the wheel. Throughout, they remained unhurt, and their sufferings won the conversion of two hundred soldiers and bystanders, who confessed Christ on the spot and were beheaded for his sake. In the temple of Mars, Eulampius commanded the idol in the name of Jesus to fall, and the image was at once shattered into dust.

At the last, Eulampius was beheaded. Eulampia, weakened by her tortures, gave up her soul to God before the executioner could complete his work upon her. They are honoured in the Church together, brother and sister steadfast in faith and unmoved in witness, with the host of those whom their endurance led to Christ.

Saint Theophilus the Confessor of Bulgaria

Saint Theophilus the Confessor was born in the lands about the lake of Tiberias in the late seventh century. At thirteen years of age, drawn by the love of God, he secretly left his family home and made his way to a monastery on Mount Selenteia. There he found a wise spiritual father in the Elder Saint Stephen, under whose guidance he was nurtured in the ascetic life and after three years was tonsured a monk. When the heresy of iconoclasm arose under the emperor Leo the Isaurian, Theophilus was already a man of mature spiritual stature, and he openly opposed the imperial folly which set itself against the holy icons. For this confession he was beaten, tied like a criminal, and led through the city in mockery. The emperor then handed him over to a senior official named Hypatius, with orders to break his constancy and turn him from the icons. But Theophilus, far from yielding, became the teacher of his guard. He set before Hypatius the brazen serpent which Moses raised in the wilderness, the cherubim of gold which God himself commanded for the Ark, and the holy image which the Saviour sent to King Abgar of Edessa. By such instruction Hypatius was so persuaded that he embraced the faith and the veneration of the icons, while the saint himself was kept under guard. Saint Theophilus reposed in peace in 716, before the worst of the iconoclast storm had broken upon the Church. He is venerated as a confessor for his early and bold witness to the truth which the Seventh Ecumenical Council later set forth in dogma. He is sometimes called Theophilus of Bulgaria, from the region in which his monastery lay.

Venerable Bassian, Wonderworker of Constantinople

Saint Bassian was born in eastern Syria in the late fourth or early fifth century. From his youth he was drawn to the monastic life, and in due course he came to Constantinople, where the pious emperor Marcian and his consort Saint Pulcheria ruled the empire. There he distinguished himself by his asceticism, his miracles, and the wisdom of his counsel, gathering about him a great brotherhood. He founded a monastery in the imperial city which numbered, according to ancient witness, three hundred monks, all of them under his fatherly direction. Among those drawn to his community in the manner of a man was the holy Matrona of Perge, commemorated on 9 November, who fled an evil husband by taking the dress of a monk and entering Bassian's monastery. When her sex was at length revealed, the holy abbot, far from condemning her, sent her with his blessing to a women's monastery in Emesa, where she lived in great holiness. Saint Bassian was held in such honour by the emperor Marcian that the sovereign himself helped to build a great church in the saint's name, near the church of Saint Mocius. The saint took part in the affairs of the Church of Constantinople in the troubled years following the Council of Chalcedon and was numbered among the bishops and abbots whose faithfulness held the city to the orthodox confession. He reposed in extreme old age, having lived a long life as a shining lamp of his city, working many miracles in his lifetime and after his repose. The Church honours him as Wonderworker of Constantinople and a teacher of monks.

Blessed Fool for Christ Andrew of Totma

1637

“Saint Andrew came of a family of devout, unlettered peasants. He obtained an education by going to church and, on the death of his parents, became a novice at the Monastery of Galich, in the diocese of Kostroma. The Abbot, who was remarkable for his wisdom, discerned Andrew’s spiritual gifts and encouraged him to undertake the unusual and difficult ascesis of Foolishness-for-Christ. Andrew left the monastery to lead a wayfaring life, but often returned to reveal his thoughts and deeds to his starets. On his Elder’s death, he settled near the Church of the Resurrection in the town of Totma, where he was completely unknown. He spent the whole night in prayer and during the day begged alms that he forthwith gave to the poor. He went barefoot summer and winter and lived on nothing but bread and water. Every year he made a pilgrimage to the holy places of the region. One day he was accosted by the chief of an outlandish tribe. The man was suffering from an eye complaint and asked Andrew, who was already looked upon as a wonderworker, to cure him. Andrew fled, but the wild man washed his eyes in the snow trodden by the Saint and was healed. “Worn out by ascesis and privation, Saint Andrew foreknew the day of his decease. He called a priest, confessed and communicated in the holy Mysteries, and not long after he fell asleep in the Lord, a heavenly scent pervading the room where his body lay. Some time later, the Saint appeared to a sick woman as she slept, holding the Gospel for her to venerate and telling her to pray at his tomb. When she awoke, the woman was healed.” (Synaxarion)

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Ephesians — Ephesians 6.18-24

¹⁸with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, ¹⁸Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; ¹⁹and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, ¹⁹And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. ²⁰For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

²¹But that ye also may know my affairs, how I do, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:

²¹But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things: ²²whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose, that ye may know our state, and that he may comfort your hearts. ²²Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts.

²³Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

²³Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible. ²⁴Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Luke — Luke 7.31-35

³¹And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? ³¹Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation, and to what are they like? ³²They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. ³²They are like unto children that sit in the marketplace, and call one to another; who say, We piped unto you, and ye did not dance; we wailed, and ye did not weep. ³³For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. ³³For John the Baptist is come eating no bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a demon. ³⁴The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold, a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! ³⁴The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! ³⁵But wisdom is justified of all her children. ³⁵And wisdom is justified of all her children.